A metal fiber sintered body is made by thermally sintering a web made by integrating metal fibers (industrially, often manufactured by drawing) of a predetermined length.
This kind of metal fiber sintered body is used in various applications, and among them stainless steel fiber sintered bodies are used in many applications such as filters because they have superior corrosion resistance. In particular, in recent years, in addition to demands for environmental conservation, the use of porous bodies at high temperatures as an energy-saving measure (for thermal efficiency improvement) has come to be demanded, and in this field also stainless steel fiber sintered bodies are being used more and more.
However, because conventional stainless steel fiber sintered bodies have been of material quality SUS304 or SUS316 or the like, about 500.degree. C. has been the highest temperature at which they can be used and there has been the problem that their heat resistance is still not good enough.
As a solution to this, ceramic pressed powder sintered bodies have been used, but although their heat resistance is excellent they have been impractical because of shortcomings such as that their mechanical strength is low, they are brittle and furthermore they are expensive.